5 ms·

DIY Pixel Qi screens - available now

43 points by ph0rque 16y ago

hackermom 16y ago
Nowhere in the announcing article on pixelqi.com, or on the linked Maker Shed product page, can the resolution of the display be found. What an awkward blooper.
- bombs 16y ago
  1024 x 600, based on specs reported by tablets and netbooks that use them, e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_tablet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_tablet.
patrickgzill 16y ago
This is excellent news; the Kindle and other e-paper devices are too limited, while reading on LCD screens gives me eyestrain.
- henrikschroder 16y ago
  Well, this is also an LCD screen, so chances are pretty high you'll get eyestrain on this one as well?
  - pyre 16y ago
    Eyestrain comes from viewing something with a backlight. As I understand it, Pixel Qi displays have the option of turning off the backlight and enabling their tech that reflects light back through the LCD (like a piece of paper, etc).
    - henrikschroder 16y ago
      Ah, ok. My Nokia phone has a reflective screen, but I've never really thought about the difference in eye-strain when I look at it indoors and in direct sunlight. Hm, I have to go test it. :-)
      - pyre 16y ago
        You'll still have some amount of eyestrain, but no more than reading text on paper, or looking at photos, IIRC.
    - stcredzero 16y ago
      I find it helps when I put my iPad into white-on-black mode when using the Kindle app. A daylight readable iPad would be awesome for traveling. How about something like an iPad with front and back cameras? One could run a Google Maps-like program with add-on features that makes it an interactive travel guide. Hold it up to take a photo of a landmark, and it could automatically create an inset picture and upload it to a photostream. Come to think of it, this would make a great feature for an iPhone 4 app.
RodgerTheGreat 16y ago
I'd love to see what Rossum (http://rossum.posterous.com/ http://rossum.posterous.com/) could do with one of these.
sireat 16y ago
While the price of $275 seems pretty high, it is still much lower than what you could get e-ink display as a developer. The big question is, can this screen serve its stated dual purpose as an excellent e-reader screen and a general purpose netbook screen. As for the resolution, my wild guess is standard 1024x600 which the Lenovo S10-2 they are marketing as a replacement screen has. Frankly $275 is a bit high for 1024x600. Interesting though is this note: "The e-paper mode has 3 times the resolution of the fully saturated color mode" So this e-paper mode is something like 1536x1200 or more like 3072x1800 (unlikely as it seems)?
- cjbprime 16y ago
  No, other way around. The monochrome mode uses a 1-1 pixel mapping, so it's true 1024x600, but the color mode uses a novel pixel layout that does not have each color component in every pixel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLPC_XO-1#Display_resolution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLPC_XO-1#Display_resolution So, while the resolution always remains 1024x600 as far as software's concerned, the effective resolution is a third when using color. (Note that the new screen is, I'm sure, not identical to the XO-1 screen, so you can't assume that the Wikipedia description will be accurate for it.)
  - ajkirwin 16y ago
    So the ACTUAL color resolution is what, about 340x200 or something? Or is it just a vertical/horizontal thing, or?
    - evilduck 16y ago
      Without having seen it, or even good pictures of it, I would assume the color mode would still have full resolution, but that colors would appear "wrong" but not neccessarily less detailed.
      - buster 16y ago
        You guys do know that there is no full color pixel? At least when i look at the recent display comparisons, it's always a matrix of different red, green, blue pixels: http://mobile.venturebeat.com/2010/06/25/retinal-scientist-puts-iphone-4s-retina-display-under-the-microscope/ http://mobile.venturebeat.com/2010/06/25/retinal-scientist-p...
illumin8 16y ago
Based on other comments I read here, it seems that the screens are 1024 x 600. Why are they so expensive? Apple probably only pays $50 or less for the IPS screen in an iPad.
- regularfry 16y ago
  New tech at low volumes. Of course it's going to be expensive.
- buster 16y ago
  If it would be an ordinary LCD screen like on the iPad it wouldn't be newsworthy.
guinness 16y ago
The price tag seems high. As previously mentioned it might be because of, low inventory volumes, new tech., etc.. What baffles me is that this technology was developed with OLPC in mind. How can you hope to sell a 100$ laptop (original price target) if a 10" screen with the same technology is 275$? OLPC didn't have insane production volumes to begin with yet shipped for 150$ which is less than this screen. Moreover, it was specifically designed to be able to use existing LCD manufacturing technology which should keep the production cost low. I predict that this price is inflated for early adopters since they will probably be selling all their inventory anyways. They are hopping to have an extremely high profit margin to recoup original investments.
- wmf 16y ago
  Development kits always cost 10x the volume price of the part. $275 tells you nothing about the actual cost of the screen.

43 points by ph0rque 16y ago

Nowhere in the announcing article on pixelqi.com, or on the linked Maker Shed product page, can the resolution of the display be found. What an awkward blooper.

bombs 16y ago
1024 x 600, based on specs reported by tablets and netbooks that use them, e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_tablet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_tablet.

patrickgzill 16y ago

This is excellent news; the Kindle and other e-paper devices are too limited, while reading on LCD screens gives me eyestrain.

henrikschroder 16y ago
Well, this is also an LCD screen, so chances are pretty high you'll get eyestrain on this one as well?
- pyre 16y ago
  Eyestrain comes from viewing something with a backlight. As I understand it, Pixel Qi displays have the option of turning off the backlight and enabling their tech that reflects light back through the LCD (like a piece of paper, etc).
  - henrikschroder 16y ago
    Ah, ok. My Nokia phone has a reflective screen, but I've never really thought about the difference in eye-strain when I look at it indoors and in direct sunlight. Hm, I have to go test it. :-)
    - pyre 16y ago
      You'll still have some amount of eyestrain, but no more than reading text on paper, or looking at photos, IIRC.
  - stcredzero 16y ago
    I find it helps when I put my iPad into white-on-black mode when using the Kindle app. A daylight readable iPad would be awesome for traveling. How about something like an iPad with front and back cameras? One could run a Google Maps-like program with add-on features that makes it an interactive travel guide. Hold it up to take a photo of a landmark, and it could automatically create an inset picture and upload it to a photostream. Come to think of it, this would make a great feature for an iPhone 4 app.

RodgerTheGreat 16y ago

I'd love to see what Rossum (http://rossum.posterous.com/ http://rossum.posterous.com/) could do with one of these.

sireat 16y ago

While the price of $275 seems pretty high, it is still much lower than what you could get e-ink display as a developer. The big question is, can this screen serve its stated dual purpose as an excellent e-reader screen and a general purpose netbook screen. As for the resolution, my wild guess is standard 1024x600 which the Lenovo S10-2 they are marketing as a replacement screen has. Frankly $275 is a bit high for 1024x600. Interesting though is this note: "The e-paper mode has 3 times the resolution of the fully saturated color mode" So this e-paper mode is something like 1536x1200 or more like 3072x1800 (unlikely as it seems)?

cjbprime 16y ago
No, other way around. The monochrome mode uses a 1-1 pixel mapping, so it's true 1024x600, but the color mode uses a novel pixel layout that does not have each color component in every pixel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLPC_XO-1#Display_resolution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLPC_XO-1#Display_resolution So, while the resolution always remains 1024x600 as far as software's concerned, the effective resolution is a third when using color. (Note that the new screen is, I'm sure, not identical to the XO-1 screen, so you can't assume that the Wikipedia description will be accurate for it.)
- ajkirwin 16y ago
  So the ACTUAL color resolution is what, about 340x200 or something? Or is it just a vertical/horizontal thing, or?
  - evilduck 16y ago
    Without having seen it, or even good pictures of it, I would assume the color mode would still have full resolution, but that colors would appear "wrong" but not neccessarily less detailed.
    - buster 16y ago
      You guys do know that there is no full color pixel? At least when i look at the recent display comparisons, it's always a matrix of different red, green, blue pixels: http://mobile.venturebeat.com/2010/06/25/retinal-scientist-puts-iphone-4s-retina-display-under-the-microscope/ http://mobile.venturebeat.com/2010/06/25/retinal-scientist-p...

illumin8 16y ago

Based on other comments I read here, it seems that the screens are 1024 x 600. Why are they so expensive? Apple probably only pays $50 or less for the IPS screen in an iPad.

regularfry 16y ago
New tech at low volumes. Of course it's going to be expensive.
buster 16y ago
If it would be an ordinary LCD screen like on the iPad it wouldn't be newsworthy.

guinness 16y ago

The price tag seems high. As previously mentioned it might be because of, low inventory volumes, new tech., etc.. What baffles me is that this technology was developed with OLPC in mind. How can you hope to sell a 100$ laptop (original price target) if a 10" screen with the same technology is 275$? OLPC didn't have insane production volumes to begin with yet shipped for 150$ which is less than this screen. Moreover, it was specifically designed to be able to use existing LCD manufacturing technology which should keep the production cost low. I predict that this price is inflated for early adopters since they will probably be selling all their inventory anyways. They are hopping to have an extremely high profit margin to recoup original investments.

wmf 16y ago
Development kits always cost 10x the volume price of the part. $275 tells you nothing about the actual cost of the screen.